I am in the Air Force and I want out. I heard of a program called, “Palace Chase” that allows you to transfer to the reserves. How does that work? Also, I know there is a way to get out if you are making a lot of money with another job or have a contract to work for a lot more pay. How does that work? How much do I have to be making?
All I can suggest to you is to talk to your unit career counselor. S/he can advise you on your options for early discharge.
Robin
Visom76 I used Palace Chase to get out of the Air Force early. What it entails is promising to serve in the Reserves for three times the length of time you leave active duty early. For example, if you leave active duty one year early you must sign up for three years in the Reserves. The minimum amount of time to promise the Reserves is one year; ie a three-month early release still gets you one year in the Reserves.
You should find a Reserve unit that is willing to hire you BEFORE you put in your Palace Chase application. Also, talk to the manpower weenie at Randolph and find out what the manning is like in your AFSC. If the active duty side is tight on manning, your chances of getting a Palace Chase slot are slim. But then again people told me that mine would never get approved, and it did!
As for the income thing, it is based on being “incompatible with government service” or some such phrasing. IIRC it is a LOT of money. In 10 1/2 years of active duty and 2 1/2 years of Reserve service I have never met or known anyone who used this. There are rumors, of course, but that’s all they are - rumors.
In the early '90s, when the military was aggressively downsizing, they were accepting pretty much any excuses to get out early. Now that they have been aggressively downsized but even more aggressively tasked, excuses just ain’t cutting it anymore.
If youre AFSC is critical, you have very little chance of getting out early. Heck, even if you AFSC isn’t critical.
I second the advice to talk to your career counselor. You may have never met him or her, but this is exactly what they are there for.
Chaplains can help with hardship discharges, but it’s bad karma to make up a hardship. As well as illegal.
NCOIC, Superintendant or First Sergeant should be able to help.
Take note, though, that the Bush administration (versions 1 and 2), have no qualms about deploying guard and reserve units. You could go palace chase, and still get deployed.
Or, just server out your enlistment. It seems like forever, but it isn’t.
Okay, sorry, had to share this story from USSTRATCOM. At the time, I was working as a computer operator supporting the war planning mission. It was a nice, secure, classified environment behind a few locked doors. No one bothered us, we didn’t bother them.
I worked with an Airman that desperately wanted out of the Air Force, but didn’t want to get in trouble. He tried palace chase, and he tried hardship discharge and he tried begging the chain of command and he tried everything he could think of. He only weighed 140lbs, so eating his way out wasn’t a real option. Boy just couldn’t get out early.
Until one day, before our shift started, he went up to the First Sergeant’s office. We never got the exact quote, but basically he said “Chief, God told me I couldn’t support the nuclear mission anymore” in such a way that the Chief got scared.
Chief asked him to wait in the lobby, then called down and had us immediately lock all his accounts, try to see if he had done anything malicious and put all of his stuff outside the three vault doors.
We didn’t seem him again. He helped the Chaplain for a week or two, then went home.
“God doesn’t approve” didn’t help the rest of us, so he must have put it better.
Maybe God doesn’t approve of what you are doing?
I read in the Air Force times that the Air Force is 13k over their DOD regulated limit. They went over to support Afghanistan and Iraq operations. The article said that in 04 they will cut those 13k as the DOD isn’t providing extra funds for them. It went on to say that the Air Force will make it easier to get out through Palace Chase and also to just get out period. I built 2 websites that are generating an OK income - better than my E-4 pay but I wasn’t going to get out over them. Though this week an investor offered to buy the websites, provide the capital to make grow and pay me to run them. He is writing up a contract for $13,500 a month for 5 years. That is really making it difficult for me to concentrate on my Air Force job. Needless to say, “I want out”. Oddly enough, in all the confusion, I hadn’t thought of talking to the career counselor - duh!
Maybe God really DOESN’T approve of my Air Force career.
I’m not sure if this will affect your plans; however, not so long ago, the MSO (Military Service Obligation) was extended from six years to eight years. That means that if you enlist into the regular Air Force for four years, you are not discharged at the end of that four years. Instead, you are separated from Active Duty and transferred to a Reserve component (drilling or non-drilling).
In addition to speaking with the unit’s Career Counselor, you might wish to check with the folks at the CBPO.
The 8 year MSO’s been around at least since 1989 when I went in.
[n]Visom76**, can you talk in a gay lisp?
Balthisar: 1989’s not so long ago to me, old codger that I am.
It’s great to hear you want out, Visom76. I left the Navy early as a conscientious objector and going through the process I discovered there are a wealth of resources for people who don’t want to serve anymore. The GI Rights Hotline may help you out.
I’d recommend against Palace Chase. Why go through a program that requires continued service when there are ways to honorably break from the service entirely?
UnuMondo
UnuMondo: Maybe the OP’s not a Conscientious Objector and thus wants to do this honorably?
Visom76: Begin here for Palace Chase information.
[url=http://www.afpc.randolph.af.mil/retsep/separation_eligibility_and_appli.htm]& here for general info on separation from the Air Force.
I spent 20 years in the personnel field in the military and constantly heard “If I have a job offer that’ll give me more money than the military gives me, I can get out early.” Haven’t seen any regulation, instruction, or manual yet to verify that one, although there are other programs which permit early separation.
p.s. I do not think that separating from the military as a CO is dishonorable. On the contrary, I think that’s very honorable provided one is, in fact, a CO.
I considered getting out of the Navy as a CO. Yes it is an honorable discharge however it is a very trying process. I really dont think its something you can read about and think, “Hmm, I wonder if I can stretch my morals to fit into this category.” It would be something more along the lines of you already felt that way and you want out.
One surefire way of course is to have pictures of you kissing another guy/girl ‘found’.
The method that I am pursuing, and I dont know if they offer something like this in the Air Force, is an “early separation by reason of convenience of the government”.
You can find information on it by reading MILPERSMAN 1910-108(google). I’m sure the Air Force has some such program.
On the subject of you getting out basically because you are rich - you will have to submit a request to DFAS to evaluate how much your contract is worth, and at that time you can buy your contract back.
Info on this is on the DFAS.mil website.
Good Luck =)
Are you sure its 3x your remaining time pilot141? I looked in to going Palace Chase when I was in, and I’m almost positive it was 2x your remaining time.
x-ray vision it was 3x for me: I got out 6 months early and had an 18-month contract with the Reserves. It could change with time and for different positions, though. At the end of 2000 it was 3x for pilots - no guarantees on what it is now!
Where did I say that I wanted him to specifically pick the CO way out? I just said that for anyone who wants to get out, for whatever reasons, there are resources to help.
When I was going through the looonnng process (a full year) of CO evaluation and then discharge, many people came up to me wanting to use the same excuse to get out. I understood that they were not honest, referred them to the aforementioned GI Rights Hotline, and advised them to pick an honest way out. Few were happy with my advice, but eventually choose other routes back to civilian life. One ill-fated young man decided to try to OD on aspirin and lay in his own vomit in front of the main administration (Building 629A if you remember DLI, Monty). That resulted in a psych discharge real soon. Wow, the people one meets in the service…
UnuMondo
UnuMondo: Take some time and read the rest of my posts in this thread.
alterego: Try not to post BS in GQ.